The James gang was surveying the County and town of Columbia. A tombstone agent spent the night at the home of Felix G. Royce; Green B. Acree had a guest, and the Dohoney home south of Columbia, Nancy Dohoney and her brother thought the hands of the man who claimed asylum because of illness while traveling through the county, too white and soft to be the farmer he said he was.

April 29, 1872 was a nice spring day and in agricultural Adair County the farmers were at work. Not many people were in the Bank of Columbia during the morning. Thomas Tyler Alexander was president, Board members included prominent Columbia merchants Thomas H. Frazer and Sinclair Wheat, and Squire Josiah Hunter and George Dohoney. The cashier, a man named R.A.C. Martin, had moved himself and his wife to Columbia from Shelbyville to take advantage of work in the new bank.

The morning went as usual until around noon when most of the businesses closed for lunch. Four men were gathered in front of the fireplace in the bank with Cashier Martin, James Garnett, the Bank Director, James Thomas Page and Thomas Claburn Winfrey. While they talked, William H. Hudson, Columbia businessman and later a very influential figure of the Adair county Fair, joined them. Mr. Hudson, who lived on the edge of town, had eaten his noon meal early, preparatory to the trip to town. A man representing himself as a cattle buyer who had stopped at the Hudson house about 11 a.m. had accepted their invitation to eat lunch with them. After the meal, Mr. Hudson had excused himself saying he had to get his horse and go to the bank. The stranger, who left at the same time, replied he would see him later. Hudson arrived at the bank and joined Major Winfrey and the others around the fireplace, not realizing who the stranger had been at his own noon meal.

Five horsemen rode abreast down Burkesville Street in Columbia to the intersection of Frazer Avenue where two rode ahead, turned into Jefferson Alley and dismounted, hitched their horses and entered the bank. One of the the remaining five also turned in to the alley, dismounted, and held the bridles of the three horses while the other two opened fire in front of the bank, shooting at every movement they saw.

The Colombians in the bank were caught unaware. William Hudson recognized one of the robbers entering the bank as his late dinner guest. Martin is said to have had a pistol which he kept in his desk drawer and was evidently unable to get to it. Thomas Winfrey was thoroughly versed with firearms, and it seems strange he did not have a pistol on him as most were armed in that day. At any rate, none of them were able to get to their guns if, in deed, they did have one.

The gang demanded that Martin open the safe, but he refused. James Page told later that he was standing by Martin and one of the robbers held a gun on him. It was Mr. Pages belief that the man did not intend to kill Martin, but thought to force him to open the safe by threatening to shoot Page. Martin moved, and as the man swung the pistol around it fired and Martin was hit.

In the confusion that followed, one of the robbers leveled his pistol at Garnett as it fired. Garnett knocked the pistol up receiving a slight wound on the back of his right hand which in later years was responsible for the removal of his hand. Hudson, who was a powerful man, then struggled with the robber and knocked him to his back on the floor.

The four gang members managed to get out of the room. Page and Major Winfrey and possibly the others escaped across the alley to the old tavern house on the corner and secured guns but it was almost over by this time.

In the bank, across the room, Martin was dragged from where he fell to the safe where his body was later found.

Meanwhile, some of the people in town became aware that the bank was being robbed. Isaac Cravens, a young clerk at Phillips & Bradshaw company, heard the shooting and grabbed his pistol and ran out the door. He shot, but the riders returned the fire and drove him back in. One bullet lodged in the door sill just above his head.

In those moments, it is surmised that the two remaining robbers in the bank, failing in their attempt to force Martin to open the vault, scooped up the money in front and dashed out. They rode out of town on Jamestown Street. Their use of the side roads showed they had thoroughly planned their escape route. They encountered, however, one unexpected obstacle. They went through the farm of Mr. Conover, who, with a hand, was working in a field which lay along Glens Fork. One of the men ordered him to open a gate which he refused to do. However, when the man leveled a pistol, Mr. Conover turned to his helper and told him to comply.

A posse was formed quickly in town. It was led by James R. Hindman, a Civil War Captain, lawyer, and in years after, Lt. Governor of Kentucky. They lost the trail of the robbers near the Russell county line. The gang was thought to have worked their way north through Taylor and Marion Counties to their hideout in Nelson County.

The body of Mr. Martin was taken to his home on Burksville Street where it was prepared for removal to his home in Shelbyville for interment by packing it in ice. The house was later the home of Mr. Ed Hughes. His daughter, Mrs. Horace Cundiff, remembered the blood stains on the floor of the room where the body lay.

At 9 p.m. on the night of the robbery the funeral party started to Shelbyville. It is remembered that the moon was shining brightly and the only sound in Columbia at the time of departure was the tolling of the church bells.

The indictment for murder carries the James name but once, and that of Younger twice. Nevertheless, it is believed that the five men were Jessie and Frank James, Bob and Cole Younger, and a brother in law of the James men called Garrett.

The late S.F. Coffey of Columbia, told of meeting Frank James after he was pardoned in 1901. Coffee told him he was from Columbia and the response from James was, Ive been there an unfortunate thing happened there.

Joe Williams was a small boy in 1872 who remembered he was up by Simon Spring when five men rode up and asked the way to town. He had started to answer when one reached down and put him in front of the saddle so he could lead them to tow. Later Joe served in the U.S. Army and guarded the prisoner Cole Younger. Joe identified himself and Younger remembered him and admitted to having been in Columbia.